In the past year, aviation almost came to a standstill. Holidays remained un-booked and business travel decreased by 95% in early 2020.1 Many corporates barely flew in the past year, but as things start returning to the old (or new!) normal, this is an opportunity to center sustainability and rethink travel policies. As corporates make plans to resume travel, we’ve seen several businesses start to focus on their Scope 3 air travel and cargo emissions, making it a key priority. But what comes next?
Corporates can investigate different options to decrease their aviation footprint, such as reducing the amount they travel by continuing to use digital platforms for business, purchasing carbon offsets or using alternative transport for short distances. Another option is using sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) through programs such as SkyNRG’s Board Now program. This provides a simple solution for organizations to decarbonize their aviation emissions. Confused about what SAF is? Check out our Beginner’s Guide!
There is a lot to learn in this space and you may still be doubting whether SAF is the right tool for you. In this article, we go through the three top questions organizations have when assessing whether SAF and Board Now could be the solution to their corporate air travel or air cargo emissions.
1. How does SkyNRG’s Board Now program work?
When you join Board Now, you help build the business case for new SAF production capacity by committing to off-take a certain volume of SAF once that production facility comes online. In its neat form, the fuel purchased through Board Now has a carbon reduction performance of up to 85% compared to fossil kerosene.
When you join the program, you commit to cover the green premium of SAF. The purchase enables the construction of a new SAF production facility. The SAF from this facility is then supplied to a nearby airport. You receive a corresponding sustainability report outlining your contribution, impact and carbon reduction claim. You can disclose this under your voluntary carbon reporting to reduce your aviation footprint. It is important to note that this reduction can be used for both business travel and / or emissions from air freight and can be purchased independently of the airlines that you engage.
2. How do you ensure that your SAF is sustainable?
When looking for solutions to reduce emissions, it’s important for corporate sustainability managers to ensure the programs they choose are quantifiable, transparent, and genuinely impactful. This is why we ensure that the fuel and corresponding offtake certificates provided for Board Now members are subjected to rigorous sustainability standards.
We believe in working together with those who have the best sustainability knowledge in the industry, which is why an independent Sustainability Board guides us. We also have our entire operations certified by the Roundtable on Sustainable Biomaterials (RSB) and are the world’s first ICAO CORSIA certified company.
These connections help us to ensure that the feedstocks we use to make SAF are produced in the right way. For example, we believe biomass for fuel use should only be admissible if ‘higher value applications’ (for e.g. living, food production and high conservation areas) are not displaced, if any side effects are far less negative than the usage of fossil fuel and if food security, environment and biodiversity are not sacrificed. We also assess (potential) indirect effects such as indirect land use change or displacement.
For SkyNRG, sustainability is about much more than avoiding harmful impacts. Instead, it’s all about improving the status quo and realizing a positive environmental and socio-economic impact.
3. How can we include SAF in our ESG / sustainability reporting?
A key part of choosing a program to invest in to reduce emissions, is the sustainability claim that is attached to it. Currently, SAF can be reported as a standalone disclosure under your voluntary carbon emissions reporting. We are working alongside organizations such as the World Economic Forum to make sure that a globally accepted reporting standard for SAF is developed, which will help to further scale this market.
While these questions provide a good basis to further your understanding of how Board Now can help achieve your sustainability targets, we’re sure there’s more you’d like to know. If you’re interested in hearing more, feel free to reach out to Avigail Kohn at info@boardnow.org.
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